Religion: Japan's Crypto-Christians

On the picturesque Japanese island of Ikitsuki, where the ways of
farmers and fishermen die hard, two old men squat before a home altar
and chant prayers carefully entrusted to them by their ancestors. The
ritual is intense and moving. But something is askew. The rite is
partly Buddhist, partly Christian. The language sounds odd, a sort of
pidgin Latin. And what do the ancient prayers mean? One of the
worshipers admits, "I don't understand a word of this."

Neither does anyone else. The men at prayer are among 10,000 surviving
Kakure Kirishitan (crypto-Christians)members...